Blood Tyrant, a raw black metal duo from Netherlands, are part of the vast and prolific Dutch metal scene and consist of Baron Yrch Malachi and The Wampyric Specter, whose positions are unknown in the band, like many other things that are unknown about them, like the location of the band or their date of formation.
After releasing their first demo cassette Night of Blood Moon earlier this year, the band’s first full-length album Aristocracy of Twilight is here to complete the first serious step of the band to open the gate to their musical journey with its seven chapters of wicked raw black metal.
As what the album presents in its early seconds and by the intro to the opener song “Dawn of a New Supremacy,” Aristocracy of Twilight contains the use of keyboards, the presence of which is constant throughout the album. At many moments of the songs, along with screaming vocals, underlying howling keyboards layers play a stronger role than guitar riffs, which helps to enrich the atmosphere, reaching to higher points of bleak yet cryptic sights that Blood Tyrant are willing to conquer.
Although it has fast parts, the songs on Aristocracy of Twilight mostly bring mid-tempo black metal, making enough proper space for the band to focus on developing their music upon atmospheric blackened doom metal soundscapes. The number of faster and slower sequences are seemingly equal on the album, covering each other perfectly.
What Aristocracy of Twilight is suffering from is its short length. That reduces the potential of the unholy force, cutting the journey shorter than anyone expects. Blood Tyrant definitely needed to focus on longer black metal pieces constructed on ambient atmospheric overtones, which is something they have successfully managed on some of the chapters of their debut.
Blood Tyrant have a well designed logo and are delivering a general yet enthralling band image, full of corpse paint, spikes, maces and torches, wandering through the dark forests in all black and white pictures. All these elements seem cool enough for new black metal bands who are trying to keep the traditions alive, but Aristocracy of Twilight isn’t enough to complete the image. Still, at the end ,Aristocracy of Twilight will more or less satisfy black metal fans. There are influences from Darkthrone, early Arckanum, Mütiilation, Drowning the Light, Moonblood among many others that are evident in this record.
(released December 16, 2016 on Iron Bonehead Productions)
